ElevenLabs Opens Toronto Office, Bets on Canada's AI Push

ElevenLabs, the AI voice startup behind synthetic speech used by Deutsche Telekom and Meta, is planting a flag in Canada. The company said Tuesday it will open a Toronto office in the coming months and double its 13-person Canadian workforce by the end of 2026.

The move formalizes a presence that already includes employees in Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal, plus roughly 30,000 users across the country. ElevenLabs named Max Lemmens general manager for Canada; he previously led adoption of the firm's conversational AI at Revolut and Klarna.

Canadian clients include Blackbox AI, Boosted.ai, The Globe and Mail and Telus Digital. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is an investor.

The expansion follows a $500-million Series D in January that valued ElevenLabs at $11 billion. Annual recurring revenue recently crossed $500 million, up from $350 million at the end of 2025. The company is reportedly in talks for an employee stock sale at a $22 billion valuation.

ElevenLabs' technology lets businesses deploy interactive voice agents in dozens of languages. For Canada, the bilingual dimension matters. Ottawa's latest AI strategy aims to lift domestic AI adoption from 12% to 60% by 2034, and ElevenLabs sees voice as a bridge for that target.

The Toronto office gives the startup a beachhead in Canada's largest tech talent pool. It also puts it closer to enterprise clients that handle sensitive audio data – telecoms, media groups, financial services – where on-the-ground support can matter more than a remote API.